The United States continues to experience significant loss of human life through attacks perpetrated with firearms. Between 2000 and 2012 the median response time for law enforcement to arrive on scene was three minutes, and in 92% of the cases response time was under seven minutes. While such response performance may represent successful police operations, in approximately half of those events injuries and killings occurred before law enforcement personnel arrived on-scene.
While such events can occur at a great variety of indoor and outdoor locations, occupants of certain building types—schools, work places, and houses of worship—have been targeted by perpetrators of such attacks. A common countermeasure often employed in these buildings is an armed security presence. Unfortunately, many organizations cannot afford the cost of maintaining a building or unit security officer, and there is typically a positive correlation among the effectiveness of the officer, their level of training and experience, and the cost of deployment. Additionally, some organizations that believe an armed security presence projects an negative public impression. Furthermore, liability concerns surrounding the potential for a wrongful death resulting from the misapplication of deadly force have been an impediment to the use of lethal counter-measures.
Portable, manual, nonlethal, and non-injurious weapons are increasingly employed in numerous military and civilian contexts. For example, rifle-mounted direct-energy weapons, e.g., green laser “dazzler” units, are used by the U.S. military at security checkpoints. Because dazzlers emit a relatively narrow light beam, the effectiveness of the weapon depends upon the ability of a skilled operator to continuously maintain the beam on an assailant's eyes. The green laser dazzler is considered effective at a range of tens to hundreds of meters, but is not suitable for indoor, close-range use. Police officers commonly employ high-intensity flashlights, often with stroboscopic function, to confuse and impair suspects. Such lightweight, battery-powered units are necessarily of limited intensity and coverage area and are typically employed as an adjunct to, rather than a substitute for, firearms.
Sonic weapons such as the Long-Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), produced by the LRAD Corporation, have been employed to control crowds, disperse riots, and deter pirates. While the LRAD is gradually demonstrating its efficacy, the LRAD system is unsuitable for use indoors at close range.
Stun grenades or flash-bangs employ both a single blinding flash and a loud bang to temporarily disorient enemies in military and police actions. Exposed personnel experience disorientation, confusion, and loss of coordination and balance. While these systems have garnered widely-accepted efficacy, and their effects are intended to be temporary, the extreme intensity of their operation presents a significant risk of permanent injury or death. Consequently, stun grenades are generally classified as “less-lethal weapons,” and their legal use in civilian contexts remains strictly limited.
The foregoing discussion is primarily concerned with portable devices that have many drawbacks. Portable, handheld, and vehicle-mounted devices are more vulnerable to potential theft and abuse than fixed and permanently-installed alternatives. Portable devices are also unsuitable for fixed installations, because they often feature narrow fields of operation, limited effectively areas, or require operation by skilled personnel.
Thus it has been a long-felt need to provide a non-injuring security system capable of incapacitating one or more armed assailants.